Central Pyrenees

For an alternative view.... ten days riding mountain roads is all well and good but I prefer a mix. Obviously motorays are out of consideration, but there's soemthign to be said for finding some faster, sweepier, wider roads at some point.

Or maybe that's just me.

some of the mountain roads are fast & swoopy, like the road from Jaca to Canfranc...
 
For an alternative view.... ten days riding mountain roads is all well and good but I prefer a mix. Obviously motorays are out of consideration, but there's soemthign to be said for finding some faster, sweepier, wider roads at some point.

Or maybe that's just me.

In the Spanish Pyrenees you get a mix. Tight, slow twisty roads are not the norm.
 
Agree that both Ripoll and Jaca are both good places to stay and use as a base. My favourite along that road (N260) is Ainsa. On a cross roads, lots of hotels, with a good place to buy and get tyres changed. They have a dedicated bike tyre fitter and had tyres to fit in stock.
Neumáticos Aragón is on the left leaving town on the N260 heading east. (Their address is not helpful, but is P.I. Sobrarbe, Nave 13-14, 22330 Ainsa.

There is also a medieval old town up on the hill with interesting streets, plaza and castle. I usually stay at Hotel Dos Rios
Avenida Central, 4, 22330
Aínsa, Spain
Phone: +34 974 50 09 61
GPS coordinates: N 042° 24.877, E 00° 8.443

The hotel also has a Hostel next door which is cheaper. Neither is expensive. Bikes can park in a secure private garage for free, 200 meters from the hotel. The restaurant / cafe is popular with locals and has a nice vibe. :thumb

Yup, Ainsa is a good place for an overnight and very good for crossing the Pyrenees en-route for the rest of Spain. As a base it's a bit limited only in the sense that after one evening you've just about done it to death! :)

I've had very good reports of that tyre place!

Simon
 
yes - follow signs for Canfranc Station and have a gawp at that before continuing over the pass. You will be rewarded with views and a lovely road like this https://goo.gl/maps/XpfV3fvb6MahPLeM6 and https://goo.gl/maps/hMx4UZSshdDnjV1i7 and then you cross to the French side which is a bit greener as it is on the cooler, Northern slopes.

Thank you.

I'm planning to stay overnight at Canfranc and now I'll reide the pass then on to St. Pierre du Martin and on towards Potes for the night (all being well).

Looks like my kind of road! :bow:bow:beerjug::beerjug:
 
Thank you.

I'm planning to stay overnight at Canfranc and now I'll reide the pass then on to St. Pierre du Martin and on towards Potes for the night (all being well).

Looks like my kind of road! :bow:bow:beerjug::beerjug:

Most of nit all hotels in Spain are closed due to the emergency and they will surely close the frontier any minute now, I'd ride on into France asap if I were you!
 
Most of nit all hotels in Spain are closed due to the emergency and they will surely close the frontier any minute now, I'd ride on into France asap if I were you!

I'm not going until mid July so I hope all will be fine by then - I'm still under frost at home!
 
If you google "Route des cols" you will find loads of info about this classic route coast to coast on the French side which includes all the famous TDF passes.

There are more passes on the French side and lots more narrow offshoots from the "main" route (Route des cols on French side, N260 on Spanish side)

We did a mix last year on a 10 day trip, we left Santander and headed inland a bit towards route des cols stopping at a Hotel close to St Jean Pied de Port - Hotel des sources de la nive, recommended if you don't insist on being in a town with a McDonalds and Starbucks and are happy to live off French food in the Hotels French Restaurant, but I do understand some folk expect a full English Brekky and Only Fools and Horses on TV when abroad.

From here we picked up Route Des Cols (going over a couple of beautiful remote passes on the way) and then followed the classic route over the famous passes all the way to Bagneres du Luchon, a larger town with a lot more choice for eating and drinking, I like to mix it up between small towns and rural Hotels.

After that we did a few more French passes (Adn the Vielha road and back out via Andorra - but it is so congested, I just wanted to tick Port d'envalira of my list, probably not worth the aggro) and then dropped back into Spain at Puigcerda having decided not to go all the way to the Med via the smaller / lesser passes, after that we took a winding scenic root to Terradets (not far from Sort) and had 2 nights giving us a day to loop around the N260 and some other Passes.

From there back up the N260 (with a small diversion to miss a more "boring bit") to Pamplona, 2 nights here with the intention of doing a looping run back up around some more French passes just to the North (But was raining a lot - only day of trip, so we went on a pub crawl)

Overall a great trip, stayed in France and Spain (Tightwads will want to stick to Hotels on Spanish side of border) in towns and villages and did a good mix of major and minor passes, wide and narrow roads, smooth and bumpy roads - fantastic.

If I did it again I would skip the detour via Andorra and add a third night at Terradets making Terradets and Pamplona my two bases.
 
Hotel des sources de la nive

I have stayed there, twice. Right at the end of the road. When I turned up the owner had just returned from hunting and was getting mildly pissed with his mates. There was a large, very dead, boar tied over a 4x4’s front.
 
A mate joined our trip late and had to get a room elsewhere, a few miles back up the road to the North is a larger Hotel that looked fantastic, but he just came down to us for the evening so only slept in it so not really got a lot to say - other than it looked nice on the web and as we drove past.

Hotel del Prado in Puigcerda is worth a shout out as well, very lavish for the price. Puigcerda has a funky bar / restaurant opposite the Hotel (but surprisingly little else)

Bagneres was surprisingly grotty / very rustic (depending how you view such things) but we enjoyed it, but it was one of those places I felt grateful for use of a garage, but 3 bikes were left outside the Hotel and survived the night fine.

In Pamplona I made sure we had private car park, but this did mean a good 10-15 minute walk to town, and after visiting most bars it took a lot longer coming back!
 
A mate joined our trip late and had to get a room elsewhere, a few miles back up the road to the North is a larger Hotel that looked fantastic, but he just came down to us for the evening so only slept in it so not really got a lot to say - other than it looked nice on the web and as we drove past.

Hotel del Prado in Puigcerda is worth a shout out as well, very lavish for the price. Puigcerda has a funky bar / restaurant opposite the Hotel (but surprisingly little else)

Bagneres was surprisingly grotty / very rustic (depending how you view such things) but we enjoyed it, but it was one of those places I felt grateful for use of a garage, but 3 bikes were left outside the Hotel and survived the night fine.

In Pamplona I made sure we had private car park, but this did mean a good 10-15 minute walk to town, and after visiting most bars it took a lot longer coming back!

I always find that Bagneres - de Luchon yes? - stinks of staphylococci bacteria as I ride through - quickly and holding my breath! :)

Pamplona is notorious for booze ups, not just during the San Feemín fiesta!

Yes, I'd recommend Puigcerda for its location but t is a 'one street town' despite its size and local importance.
 
Yes, I'd recommend Puigcerda for its location but t is a 'one street town' despite its size and local importance.[/QUOTE]

Interestingly, just 7km over the border in France is Llívia, a Spanish enclave within France due to the wording of a treaty. A quote from Wiki:
"Llívia did not become part of the Kingdom of France as the treaty stipulated that only villages were to be ceded to France, and Llívia was considered a town (vila in Catalan) and not a village because of its status as the ancient capital of Cerdanya".

Despite my interest I have yet to visit.
 
Yes, I'd recommend Puigcerda for its location but t is a 'one street town' despite its size and local importance.

Interestingly, just 7km over the border in France is Llívia, a Spanish enclave within France due to the wording of a treaty. A quote from Wiki:
"Llívia did not become part of the Kingdom of France as the treaty stipulated that only villages were to be ceded to France, and Llívia was considered a town (vila in Catalan) and not a village because of its status as the ancient capital of Cerdanya".

Despite my interest I have yet to visit.[/QUOTE]
Me too, despite living here for over twenty years ... Actually it looks to be just a few g¡hundred yards over the 'border'! :)
 
Good plan, I was there too.
The route of our Eurotour 2016 with my husband involved a vacation on the Catalan coast of Spain after visiting a number of cities in France. Therefore, we decided to lay the way from France to Spain through the picturesque mountains of the Pyrenees.
There was no task to visit any specific places in the Pyrenees, I just wanted to drive this path not boring and admire the mountains.
We did not adhere to clear points in the route, I will list approximate ones: Biarritz (France) - Irun (Spain) - Pamplona - Jaca - Huesca - Roda de Isabena - Vic - Playa d'Aro.

We drove all the way through the Pyrenees in less than a day and a half, because spent the night somewhere in the mountains near the French-Spanish border, and set off early in the morning.
We really enjoyed
 
Good plan, I was there too.
The route of our Eurotour 2016 with my husband involved a vacation on the Catalan coast of Spain after visiting a number of cities in France. Therefore, we decided to lay the way from France to Spain through the picturesque mountains of the Pyrenees.
There was no task to visit any specific places in the Pyrenees, I just wanted to drive this path not boring and admire the mountains.
We did not adhere to clear points in the route, I will list approximate ones: Biarritz (France) - Irun (Spain) - Pamplona - Jaca - Huesca - Roda de Isabena - Vic - Playa d'Aro.

We drove all the way through the Pyrenees in less than a day and a half, because spent the night somewhere in the mountains near the French-Spanish border, and set off early in the morning.
We really enjoyed

Nice little run! :)
 


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